Mondial de l'Automobile - October 2 to 19 2014

[MelloYello]

Mondial de l'Automobile October 2 to 19 2014
The Mrs and I had arranged a visit to Paris earlier in the year. To my surprise it just so happened to coincide with the Mondial de l'Automobile . We had visited Paris in previous years but we were always a week or so either side. Then I thought to myself what are the chances of dragging the Mrs around a car show = NIL.
Then I noticed a special event within the show called L’automobile La Mode (Cars and Fashion). A match made in heaven given that the other half is a fashion journalist, well it should buy me a couple of hours at least.
Now if a show of this scale was to be held in the UK you would be raped at the ticket gate, not so on the mainland 18 euros each – Sold.
The concept was to show that cars and fashion are linked together. Especially at the point of developing concepts and with the advertising. Unfortunately all the signage was in French. It was an excuse to wheel out some cool classic cars and also included some collaborations with fashion designers. I knew that there would be at least one rotor motor, and it would include the new MX-5.
What follows is lots of photos and blurbs of what I can remember.
The entrance

XK120

Subaru 360

Gullwing Mercedes (not the Mercedes I was looking for)

Matra 530

Alfa Romeo concept



Toyota 2000gt

Maserati concept



Mercedes C111 (this is the rotor I was looking for)



Citroen SM

Peugeot 504 convertible


Renault Alpine (in a fetching shade of Yellow – all the cool kids)

Alf Romeo Montreal

Mazda MX-5


Peugeot 406 Coupe


Peugeot 205 GTi

Renault Avantime

Renault concept



Paul Smith does Mini

Hermes does Citroen 2CV



Some twat (I cannot remember his name) does Smart car
(edit: a quick google tells me it is Jeremy Scott – who? – looks like a twat)


Another Peugeot concept – cool wagon





Citroen concept

One more Renault Concept (this is a French show after all)

bubble car

[MelloYello]

Whilst I was on site I thought it best to make the most of my visit and “cherry pick” some stands to visit. Now these “shows” are trade shows for those in the industry. All the effort and business goes on in the days before the public are let in. It is just a kind gesture that they even let us in.
So the vast scale of the place let me quite cold. More than 8 huge warehouses displaying there goods.
And a sea of people. So I quickly made my way through and only stopped when something caught my eye. So here is the best of the rest – according to moi.

Too many people

Racey Porsche

Lamborghini hybrid


Toyota C-HR



Then tucked away in the corner of all this ridiculous shiny plastic gimmicky stuff was this –
A love worn Detemaso Pantera


A fast Honda

An even faster Honda



Wait a minute that shit is just glued onto plastic ffs

A cool Honda






I then found the Mazda stall – I was close to giving up
And found this beauty – some kind of Mazda 3 Rally machine








And the new MX-5















I was ready to leave by this stage.
I enjoyed the Cars and Fashion show because of the retro cars.
The rest of it left me cold.

[ian65]

nice.... great photo's there James and some real cool classics. I can't believe the new MX5, what a horrible looking thing.... whatever happened to the lightweight little roadster with the clean lines? That thing looks like a creation from a Top Gear challenge.
Awesome post though, thanks for taking the time to write it up and link all those photos.

[codge]

Thanks James.....

[Lucky]

Some cool stuff in there, thanks for posting, James. We need more threads with 70's wedge concept cars And more door mirror wipers